North Korea official reiterates door open for dialogue with U.S.

By

Yonhap News Agency

Kim Yong Chol, a senior official of North Korea's ruling Worker's Party, arrives at a railway station in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Sunday at the end of the closing ceremony for the Olympics. Photo by Yonhap

Participants shout slogans during a rally against a visit of Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of Central Committee of Workers' Party of North Korea in Seoul, on Monday. Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

SEOUL, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- A senior North Korean official said Monday the reclusive state is willing to hold talks with the United States, noting the door for dialogue between the two countries remains open, according to an official from Seoul's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

The remarks from Kim Yong Chol, the North's point man on South Korea, came in a meeting with Chung Eui-yong, chief of South Korea's National Security Council and the top security adviser to President Moon Jae-in.

"Kim said the door remains open for dialogue with the United States. He said the North has also repeatedly expressed such a stance," a ranking Cheong Wa Dae official told reporters, while speaking on condition of anonymity.

Kim's remarks came one day after he told the South Korean president in a meeting that the North has enough willingness to hold bilateral talks with the United States.

The United States seemed to remain cautious, with White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders saying Washington will first see if Kim's remarks represented the North's first step toward denuclearization.

The North Korean official arrived here Sunday as part of an eight-member delegation to the closing ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games.

The possibility of U.S.-North Korea dialogue surfaced after the two Koreas resumed inter-Korean dialogue last month to discuss the North's participation in the Olympic Games that ended Sunday.